A beauty class at the Helena Rubinstein Salon in 5th Avenue, New York

gelatin silver print (analogue)

Austrian Inge Morath came to New York in the 1950s and worked for the famous Magnum photo agency, where she also met Helena Rubinstein. Rubinstein was a cosmetics mogul - a predecessor of Estee Lauder, Bobbi Brown and Kevyn Aucoin - and laid the foundation for a beauty industry that is now a billion-dollar business. By the mid-1920s, the company that bore her name was already worth 7.5 million Dollars. This made Rubinstein one of the first self-made women to amass a six-figure fortune. Clearly, Morath and Rubinstein shared an eye for the joy that can come from looking at beautiful things. In 1957, Morath photographed the businesswoman at home as she lovingly looked at a piece from her art collection. The following year, she visited one of Rubinstein's salons on 5th Avenue in New York to document the daily goings-on, including a lesson on the perfect eyebrow and a class on Rubinstein's products.
Inge Morasth's later husband, the writer Arthur Miller once wrote of this iconic image, "An army of women undergoing the painstaking ritual of a facial care at Helena Rubinstein, the procedure accompanied by quasi-scientific drawings on the board, in the end, the final result successfully demonstrated by the maestro on the 'experimental object' "¹
Morath's beauty salon photographs are unique in that they focus not only on the beauty products and treatments, but also on the women and their individual personalities. The images depict women who are relaxed, confident, and comfortable in their skin, regardless of their outward appearance. Morath's work in Helena Rubinstein's beauty salon helped change the idea of beauty and femininity in the 1950s and show the diversity of women in American society.
(Christoph Fuchs)

Notes

1
Hannah Tindle, "Inside Madame Helena Rubinstein’s Beauty School", Magnum Photos, 2018, https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/inge-morath-inside-helena-rubinsteins-beauty-salons/ (retrieved 4.2.2025)